Reset!: Gemini Ascendant
by Randomality
Summary: With their powers restored, Impulse and Inertia continue their training under Max Mercury. Impulse reunites with Young Justice, but what to do with Inertia? Sequel to Reset!: Blackout. AU.
1. Training

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

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**Reset!: Gemini Ascendant – Chapter One: Training**

_[Continued from Reset!: Blackout -- After Max Mercury's disappearance into the Speed Force, Impulse allied with Inertia to defeat Rival and rescue their mentor. However, Max opted to stay behind, heralding an outage of the speedsters' powers. Bart and Thad, trapped in Manchester, had to cope with living with each other and without their speed for months. When Rival returned, he possessed Wally and fought Thad. Max Mercury returned and Rival was captured and contained. Now life has returned to normal and the teen speedsters pick up where they left off.]_

Max settled down in the house he lived in with his daughter and two wards. It was nice to be surrounded by familiar, material things. His comfy chair. His books and newspapers. His coffee mug full of a hot, dark brew. It was nice to be home.

A laughing Bart raced by with a pair of underwear on his head, chased by an angry, yelling Thad and a barking Dox. Max let out a measured sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked to Helen, who was curled up on the couch and unfazed by this development. "Are they always like this?"

She nodded and turned the page of her bodice-buster romance novel. "This is the status quo for them. Bart gets bored. Bart annoys Thad. Thad overreacts. Chaos, followed by a scuffle in the backyard. Boys come in dirty and exhausted. Peace in the house for a little while. Repeat."

Max grumbled under his breath and set his book aside. "I wanted a little quiet time before I started training them again, but they obviously have some excess energy. I'm going to take them for a run."

The white-haired Zen Master of Speed found the boys wrestling in the backyard, just as Helen predicted. "Well, Thad, you must be fully recovered from that beating Rival gave you." Both boys stopped to see Max towering over them with his arms crossed. "And Bart looks like he needs something to do." The boys exchanged anxious glances. Max leaned down and grinned. "Let's go for a run." He reached out and yanked the underwear off of Bart's head and handed it to Thad. "Go change into your suits. I'll be waiting."

Bart took that as a cue to go to his room to change, instead of simply switching clothes in the backyard. Once inside his bedroom, he opened up the compartment in his ring and his white and red Impulse costume popped out. How long had it been since he last wore this? How long had it been since he last had his powers? It seemed like forever.

Thad pulled his black and green Inertia costume from the bottom of the dresser drawer. How long had it been since he last wore this? He hated what that costume stood for. He wasn't just some Reverse-Impulse. He was Thaddeus Thawne! But if Max said to wear it, he would oblige.

He heard a rip and a yelp from Bart's room. Curious, he peeked in to investigate. There, he found Impulse trying to hold a catastrophic tear in the backside of his costume together. Red in the face, Bart grinned at Thad. "Um, my costume isn't stretchy enough anymore." He quickly took it off and changed back into his civilian clothes.

Thad stared at the costume he still held in his hand. "I don't think this is going to fit, either." At least Bart was good for making the embarrassing mistakes first, so he didn't have to.

"What are we gonna do?" Bart asked as he put his damaged costume back into his ring.

Max asked from the hallway, "About what?" He was dressed in the blue and white he customarily wore as Max Mercury.

Thad answered first, "We outgrew our costumes."

Max went into his bedroom for a second, and then reemerged in clothes appropriate for hiking. "Then we'll just change the lesson plan." He planted a broad palm on each of the boys' heads. "You _have_ grown quite a bit."

They followed Max out of Manchester, enjoying the chance to stretch their legs. The elder speedster took them on a familiar route around the globe, avoiding civilization where they could. He wanted the boys to cut loose for a little while and push their limits. It wasn't long before Bart tagged Thad's shoulder in a challenge. Suddenly, it was Max who was having some strenuous excerise as he fought to keep up. Age may bring wisdom, but it had a nasty habit of slowing a man down. However, it gave him a chance to see the boys running shoulder to shoulder, equal in speed. Neither could hold a lead on the other for very long.

Max's stamina couldn't compete with exuberant youth, so he settled on tracking the boys until he found them resting on a small islet in the Pacific. Sweating and out of breath, their legs shook from the strain of the race. Max grinned and he stopped on the rocks. "Now, we can begin our lesson."

High in the altiplano of the Bolivian Andes, Max sat on a patch of exposed earth with his legs crossed. In front of him, his two pupils did the same. Thad's back was ramrod straight and he eyes held a focused determination. Bart squirmed and shifted as he looked around the secluded mountain valley. Max could already guess how this was going to go, but it was a phase that they had to pass.

Bart's voice piped up, "Are we gonna learn how to connect with the Speed Force like you do and go all freaky lightning eyes?" He waggled his fingers around his face to pantomime electricity.

"We're going to start," Max admitted, "But it requires a great deal of concentration." He saw Thad's smirk and sidelong glance at Bart. "Quieting the mind is more difficult than it sounds."

"Yeah," Bart agreed, "After you disappeared, I tried to do it the way you do and I couldn't. I kept feeling twitchy and hungry." He paused a beat. "I'm kinda hungry right now."

"You're always hungry," Max remarked without pause, "So, let's get started. I want you both to close your eyes and relax. Breathe slowly and deeply and focus your attention on that. I want you to clear your mind and just breathe."

Bart struggled to ignore the itches and complaints from his body and tried to quiet his mind. What was Carol doing right now? He wanted to hang out with her. What was he going to have for dinner? Max would be surprised to find out that he could cook, now. He was sure of that. Maybe he could get Young Justice together this weekend and hang out on the spaceship. That would be awesome! He wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. Something melty cheesy, at the least. He hadn't seen anyone else but Kon for a long while now! He had talked with them via phone and email, but that just wasn't the same. Was that a hummingbird flying by? Don't peek. Max is watching. Nevermind, peeked anyways. Whatever it was, it was flying behind him. How was he going to get a new costume? If he made it, it wasn't going to fit in his ring. Enchiladas sounded good too. Could they stop for enchiladas on the way home? Didn't Wally say it was STAR Labs that made the old costume? Would they make a new one if he asked really nicely? That would be awesome! His back was itching in that spot that was always really hard to reach. Yeah, that had to be a hummingbird. The wind was picking up a little speed too and it felt cool. Maybe he could update his costume while he was at it? Maybe something with pockets. Pockets were awesome. A utility belt like Robin's! That would be even cooler! How would that fit into the ring? Chili cheese fries! Enchiladas _and_ chili cheese fries! His nose was itching again and there was a muscle in his shoulder that was getting twitchy. How long was he going to have to sit here?

Thad frowned against the onslaught of thoughts and memories that were anything but relaxing. Max had finally returned, much to his satisfaction. The end result of that mission had not failed, it had simply been delayed. Rival was contained and in custody. He hadn't heard where, but he didn't much care, either. Thad would have preferred that Rival had been destroyed, so that the body-hopping speedster couldn't do any more damage ever again. Like that clone he had killed when he reunited with Bart. Thad's jaw clenched. Did Max know that he had killed? He knew that Max would not approve. What would happen if he found out? What if Bart said something? Bart was upset over the matter when it first happened. Thad hoped that Bart had long forgotten it. Would Max cast him out if he discovered the sordid affair? Would Max turn on him too? Thad once thought that his only ally was Craydl, the sophisticated computer system that tended to his upbringing. He thought that Craydl was loyal to him and would serve his every need. How naive he was! Craydl was loyal to President Thawne above all else and when Thad lashed out against Thawne, Craydl moved to subdue him. It was only a stroke of luck that he avoided the engulfing grasp of the technoplasm. It was luck that let him escape the warehouse-sized complex where he was raised. Thawne was going to replace him with clones. How could a man render his own grandchildren disposable? How could a man take away his daughter's children and treat them like lab animals? Thad struggled against the building rage to keep his breathing calm and steady. His mother hadn't come for him yet. She didn't want her children, Thad was sure of it now. Why else would she abandon them in a primitive time? Was he disposable to her, too? Max was here now, shouldn't he be happy with that? Bart certainly seemed to be. That simpleton. Of course _he_ would be happy. He never thought ahead far enough to be worried by anything. That idiot. Didn't he realize that he was abandoned?

Max's voice broke into the stream, "Slow breathing, Thad. Focus on staying relaxed and breathing. You too, Bart."

Bart's voice answered back, "But I'm hungry and there's an itch on my back and on my nose! Those birds are really noisy too."

"Relax and breathe," Max reminded him.

"Okay, okay."

Max let them struggle on with the meditation until he heard both of their stomachs grumble. "That's enough for today. Let's get something to eat." He stood up and brushed the dust off of his pants. Bart started scratching at all of his itches.

Thad rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "I couldn't quiet my mind at all."

"I didn't expect you to." Seeing the surprise and irritation from Thad, Max added, "But with some time and practice, you will."

He led the boys northward until he stopped along the bank of a small lake in a North American wilderness. An open meadow along one side of the lake was hemmed in by the forest. "This looks like a good place to get some lunch." Seeing the bewilderment of his pupils, he grinned. "Without leaving my sight, find something to eat."

Bart gaped. "What?! There's nothing here! How are we supposed to find something to eat?"

Settling down at the base of a tree, Max crossed his arms. "You two are smart boys, you figure it out."

Bart and Thad exchanged anxious glances. "How are we gonna find food around here?" Bart asked his brother.

"I don't know! Why are you asking me?" Thad snapped, "My training did not include wilderness survival." His yellow eyes widened with realization and he faced Max. "That's why we're here, isn't it?"

Max stretched out his legs on the earth. "Like I said, you're smart boys."

Searching for anything food-like, Bart ran over the lake and along the river that fed it. The glint of silvery scales under the water caught his attention. Racing back to Thad, he pulled on his brother's arm. "Hey, I found a fish! We can eat fish!"

Thad jerked his arm away, but followed him back to the river. There, he watched Bart run along the surface of the water and snatch up the fish. Holding the fish, Bart mused, "Now what?"

Frowning, Thad watched the fish slowly begin to struggle in Bart's hands. "It's still alive. Kill it."

Bart recoiled from him. "What?_ No!_ We don't kill!"

"Every bit of meat that you eat came from an animal that someone killed," Thad reminded, "If you want to eat that fish, you have to kill it."

Bart looked down at the fish in his hands, not liking the idea. "How?"

Thad snatched the fish away from him and slammed its head against the nearest tree hard enough to pop one of the eyes out of its socket. Bart winced at the impact. The memory of Thad killing the other clone all those months ago flashed in his mind. "There," Thad said as he handed the limp fish back to Bart. "It's dead. I'm going to find another one." Thad ran off to search the waters for another fish swimming close to the surface.

Bart returned to Max with the fish in hand. "Here, I found this."

"Largemouth bass, nice job." Max stared at the smashed head with wide eyes and an grimace. "Did you club it?"

"No, Thad used it like a club," Bart answered, still unsettled by the event, "He said we had to kill it first to eat it."

"Well, he was right, although you don't usually don't need to club it _that_ hard." He spotted Thad still searching the waters for easy prey. "As soon as he gets back here, I'll you boys how to clean the fish and build a fire."

Thad soon returned and held out two more small largemouth bass to Max. His pants were soaked to the knee and his sleeves were rolled up. "I also found some small lobsters in the river. Should we get those?"

Max's eyebrows rose. "Crawfish?" He thought about this for a moment. "We don't have a pot to boil them in. We can leave them for now. They are edible, though."

Bart turned towards the river. "Can we take some little lobsters home?"

"Crawfish," Max corrected again, "And I don't see why not. I can show you how to cook them up when get back to Manchester. Helen might like the change of pace, too. We'll have to make a basket to carry them, though." He pulled his folded utility knife from his pocket and opened it. With a few strokes, he demonstrated how to clean a fish. Bart wrinkled his nose at the display, while Thad watched in studious interest. Max finished and offered the knife to Bart first. "Here, you try on your fish."

Bart reluctantly took the knife. Several awkward strokes later, his fish was gutted and cleaned. "That's kinda gross," he remarked about the small pile of innards now laying on the ground.

"Those are the parts we don't eat," Max calmly pointed out.

Thad took the knife from Bart and gutted his fish in quick, clean strokes. "There. Mine's done." He offered the knife back to Max.

Nodding approval, Max accepted his knife and wiped it clean. Afterwards, he showed the boys how to build a fire using friction. "As a speedster, it's easy for us," he said as the sticks he rubbed together began to smoke in the prepared pit. "The trick is getting it to catch on the tinder. As opposed to creating friction, that takes a more subtle touch. Blow too hard and you extinguish the flame before it begins. Too soft and it doesn't catch."

Bart helped feed the tinder of dry grass and moss to the smoldering start of the fire. "Why not use matches or a lighter or a flamethrower?"

The fire caught under Max's guidance and Thad fed the first twig to it. The elder speedster answered the question, "At some point, you'll find yourself without those options. I want you boys to be able to take care of yourselves, no matter the circumstances."

Soon, the skewered fish roasted over the fire. "Now, about those crawfish you wanted to take home." He stood up and pointed to a stand of black willow nearby. "We'll use that for the basket to collect them in."

He showed the boys the difference between willow branches suitable for the skeleton, rim, and body of the basket. The boys opted not to use the knife to cut the wands. Instead, they made their chosen lengths of willow intangible and pulled them away from the tree. Around the cookfire, Max showed them how to weave the branches into a basket. However, when the boys had difficulty getting the weave to hold, they simply vibrated and merged the trouble spots together. Max sighed, but allowed it.

Once the baskets were done, the boys waded into the shallows of the river and collected crawfish to take home. Bart held up on crawfish and watched its legs wiggle. "We're gonna eat these?" He frowned. "They don't look like they're good to eat."

"Lobsters are held in high culinary regard," Thad remarked, "These look like smaller versions of that. Besides, Max confirmed that they're edible."

Bart dropped the crawfish into the basket with the others. "How do you eat something like this?"

Thad shrugged and examined the basket. "I don't know."

They brought the basket to Max, who was tending the cooking fish. It wasn't long until the fish was done and they settled down to eat. Bart examined his fish as he ate it. "It's kinda bland. I think it needs some salt and lemon and maybe something else. I dunno what. Oh! Can you wrap fish in bacon?"

Max noticed Thad's reflexive grimace and raised his eyebrows. "I don't see why not."

Bart was still babbling on his tangent of the moment while he ate. "I guess you would have to skin the fish first, 'cause you can't eat the scales, right? And 'cause bacon has salt in it, you wouldn't have to add salt. Butter! Oh, wait, if you used bacon, you wouldn't have to use butter, either. Hey, I bet it would work! We gotta try it!"

Max chuckled at Bart's enthusiasm. "Since when were you so interested in _cooking_ food, instead of just eating it?"

"I dunno. Helen makes us take turns at making dinner, and then me and Carol sometimes make dinner at her place when I go over there, 'cause we can't eat out all the time. When I'm the one making the food, I get to eat what I want to eat, so that's cool." He picked the last little bits of meat off of the bones. "Can you cook fish with cheese? Besides a tuna melt?"

Now, Max had to shrug. His culinary knowledge was not strong enough to field these questions. "I don't know."

"Thad just cooks out of a box or a can, so I can't ask him," Bart continued.

"It's still food!" Thad retorted.

Bart ignored his brother's outburst. "Is there such a thing as a fish enchilada? I know there are fish tacos."

Thad was not letting go of the subject. "You used to just cook out of box or can too," he accused Bart.

"Well, yeah, but I leveled up." He stuck his tongue out at his brother. Thad's arm shot out and he grabbed Bart's tongue, eliciting a yelp of surprise.

Max reflexively barked, "Thad! Let go of him!" Thad immediately complied and Max sighed. "Can't you two keep your hands to yourselves for _one day_? Just eat your fish and we'll get on our way."

Once they finished, they extinguished and buried their fire and took their catch back to Manchester. Helen sighed when she saw the basket full of wriggling crawfish. "What am I supposed to do with this?"


	2. Reunion

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

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**Reset!: Gemini Ascendant – Chapter Two: Reunion**

Sitting crosslegged on the wooden floor of his bedroom, Bart examined the devastating rip in his red and white costume. Thick brown hair fell over his yellow eyes as he focused on the fabric between his fingers. Beside him, Dox yawned and stretched out on a discarded hoodie.

The door creaked open and Thad kicked a pile of clothes out of his path. Scowling at his brother, he crossed his arms. "You're not trying to fix that thing, are you?"

"Yeah," Bart answered in a challenge to Thad's scorn. The edges of the tear finally lined up perfectly and he started to vibrate the tear together. Under his guidance, the fabric fused together.

"It's not worth it." Thad kicked at more of the clutter on the floor, exposing the worn wooden boards to light. "It doesn't fit anymore. Just donate it to the museum and be done with it."

Thick eyebrows pulled down and Bart sighed. "Yeah, I know, but this is the one made by STAR Labs. The ones I make won't collapse into the ring." He lifted up his right hand to emphasize the ring with the lightning bolt insignia.

"It's your own fault that they don't like you." Thad ducked a flying shirt and smirked at Bart's angry glower. "You let your nature get the better of you." Without lowering his chin, he sneered down at his twin. "You always do."

"Like you're any better," Bart retorted. He stood and draped the costume over the back of his desk chair. "So, what are you doing in here?"

Thad kicked more clutter into a pile. "Kon's here. Again."

Bart brightened with a cheery grin and darted out of the room, "Awesome!"

"If it's not Carol or your reject squad, it's him," Thad groused behind him. "Doesn't he have somewhere else to go?"

"It's not like we're really bothering you," Bart countered from down the hall, "Get over it."

Kon was helping himself to a cola from the fridge in the kitchen. "Powers back on?" he asked, despite knowing the answer from Bart's excited voicemail. Not that he could understand any of the words in the message, but the speed of it told him what he needed to know.

Bart broke house rules and zipped from one end of the kitchen to the other in an eyeblink, grinning from ear to ear. "Everything's better now."

"So, we have our messenger back?" When Bart nodded, Kon continued, "Great, because I'm just not cut out for it." He took a deep draft of the cola and added, "Why is it that when I fly, it's never fast enough for anyone? Gee, Kon, you can pace an airliner on your own power! That's way faster than what I can do! Well, that's right! It _is_ way faster! Glad to be of service!" The chair at the kitchen table squeaked under his athletic frame. "So, why is it always "What took you so long?" when I show up?"

Bart leaned onto the back of another chair. "Sorry 'bout spoilin' everyone." He brightened and stood up straight. "Hey! We can get everyone together again!"

Kon blinked and Bart was gone, leaving only a burst of wind and static. Thad poked his head into the kitchen. "Where did he run off to?"

Kon shrugged and took another drink. "Off to bug someone, I think. Where's Max?"

Thad's eyes narrowed with his scowl. "Why do you want to know?"

"I just wanted to say hi and welcome back," Kon's answered with a slight grimace at Thad's abrasive demeanor. "So, the "up yours" is packed in there extra tight today, huh?"

Muttering something hostile in Interlac, Thad stalked through the wall and into the garage. Kon looked down at Dox, who was sniffing at his boots. "Cranky pants is cranky." Dox didn't seem to care.

The sound of the garage door rattling up and down alerted him to Helen's return to the house. Soon, she walked into the kitchen with arms full of grocery bags. Kon immediately stood and relieved her of her burden.

"Oh, thanks, Kon. I didn't know you were here." She set her purse down and cast a glance over her shoulder towards the garage. "That would explain Thad's mood, I suppose. He doesn't like having visitors."

"He doesn't like much," Kon quipped back. He pressed his hand against the counter and the refrigerator door on the other side of the kitchen seemingly opened on it's own.

Helen smiled and shook her head as she pulled milk and cheese out of one bag and set them in the waiting fridge. "You sure like showing that trick off."

Shrugging, he answered, "When you got it..." He handed more cold items to her to put away. "So, where's the Zen Master of Speed?"

"I think he's convening with the other master speedsters." She shut the fridge door and set to putting away the dry and canned goods. "I don't see Bart trying to get in the way. Have you seen him?"

"He's pestering people, probably. For all I know, he got distracted by something shiny or edible along the way and is having misadventures because of it."

"And he left you here with Thad for company? That's a little rude."

On cue, Bart reappeared in the kitchen and blurted out something too fast for either Kon or Helen to follow. Before either one could ask him to repeat, he slowed down. "Where does Tim live?"

Kon planted a hand on the wall and shook his head. "He made me promise not to tell anyone else. Even Young Justice."

Bart frowned and tried to run off and search every inch of Gotham, but his feet were firmly stuck to the floor. "Kon! Let go! Letgoletgoletgo!"

Kon shook his head and kept his telekinetic grip on the speedster firm. "Why do you want to find him, anyways?"

"So we can all hang out in the spaceship and have fun! We haven't done that in _forever_! Let go!"

"Well, tell ya what, Imp," Kon offered, "I'll help you round everyone up. You don't need to carry everyone over by yourself, anyways."

Still stuck to the floor, Bart raised his fists into the air triumphantly. "Awesome!" Then he added, "Thad's gotta come too. He needs to get out more."

Kon sighed in resignation. He really didn't want to feel like he was being a jerk to Bart. "Sure, Nert can come too."

Helen paused halfway through putting a box in the cupboard. "What did you call him?"

"Oh, uh, that's just a nickname I came up with a while back," Kon awkwardly explained, "See, there's Imp here, and then it seemed like Inertia needed one too, but In doesn't work well when you're trying to keep the two separate. So, there's Imp and there's Nert."

Bart snickered, "Nert?"

"Yeah, best I could come up with." Kon shrugged again. "I just couldn't summon up the awesome razor wit for it. When I come up with something better, I'll let you know. At least Cassie and Tim know who I'm talking about."

With a manic grin, Bart discovered that his feet were free and he darted into the garage. From inside the kitchen, Kon and Helen could hear him loudly chirp "_Nert!_" A rush of wind gusting by signaled to Kon that Bart had left the house.

"Gotta go, Helen! Young Justice is meeting whether we want to or not!" Kon gave her a quick, sloppy salute and raced out of the house to try to catch up to Bart.

Thad poked his head into the kitchen, wearing a confused expression. "What was that about?"

Helen continued to put the last of the groceries away. "He's going to want you to go to the spaceship in a little bit." It briefly occured to her that she would have never even considered saying anything like that seriously just a few years ago. "Please humor him on this one. He's just trying to be helpful. He doesn't want you to be left out."

Crossing his arms, Thad grumbled, "He's so annoying about it. I neither want nor need to be around his little friends."

"I know, but I also want you to be there and keep him out of trouble." Helen leaned against the counter and looked Thad in the eye. "He's a little excited right now and we know what happens when he's wound up like that. None of his friends can keep up with him if he gets too enthusiastic."

"To think our dear grandfather Thawne considered him a threat." He knelt down to rub Dox behind the ears. "Fine, I'll babysit him."

Meanwhile, in a nice little house in the suburbs of Central City, Max sat down at the Wests' kitchen table. Wally set a mug of coffee down in front of him, before sitting down with his own mug.

"How are you doing?" Max asked, "Have you recovered from Rival possessing you?" The truth was, Max was worried because Inertia had not held back when he fought the possessed Wally, resulting in a hospital trip for the Flash.

"Yeah, I'm doing great," Wally answered lightly, "Nothing like a good night's rest and some speed healing to take care of what ails ya." Wally grinned, "So, how are things in Manchester?" Max couldn't help but groan and Wally chuckled at that. "Bart alone was more than I can handle. I couldn't imagine trying to take care of two teen speedsters."

"Thad does offer challenges of his own," Max admitted.

"What is with that kid, anyways?" Wally crossed his arms and frowned. "He looks at me like he would love to shove me down a long flight of stairs. It's like he hates me, even though I haven't done anything to him!"

Max gave a small shrug. "According to Bart, Thaddeus hates everyone. Though, I doubt that's entirely true."

"Yeah, well, I don't like having my back to him. Especially with that kidney shot he landed on me. There's just something not right with that kid."

"No, there isn't," concurred Max, "And that's why I'm working with him, in addition to Bart. That's also why I've decided to try to develop the two as a working pair."

"What?" Wally blurted before he could think, "Are you _nuts_? Bart's a loose cannon and Inertia's not much better. Cleaning up after one is bad enough, I don't want to find out what cleaning up after two is like."

"But it will help Thad get past his ingrained animosity towards Bart," Max explained, "And I think that they can make up for each other's faults and keep each other in check, when they're not driving each other mad."

Wally's tone was dry, "Yeah, you let me know how that goes."

Max let a small grin slip onto his weathered face. "Actually, I was thinking that you could help in training the pair."

Shaking his head, Wally reminded, "Max, I'm no mentor. We've already figured that one out."

"Not as a mentor, but as an ally. I don't want their view of you to become more adversarial than it already is. Like you said, for whatever reason, Thad had decided that he doesn't like you. You and Bart already share a less than ideal history. I want you to call on them from time to time to help you out. I don't care if it's taking down Captain Cold or mowing the lawn. Just as long as they know that they're on your team and that you will rely on them. It will give their relationship with you a sense of focus and purpose. While that may not be of the utmost importance to Bart, it is critical to maintaining stability with Thad. Hopefully, if they end up functioning as a working pair, where one goes, the other will follow." Max's blue eyes locked onto Wally's greens. "Do you see what I'm aiming for? Helen has done wonders in turning a potential Cain and Abel into Castor and Pollux. Now, we have to make sure that it sticks."

"Yeah, I think I get your game." Wally heaved a centering sigh. "I'll see what I can do. Will they be patrolling?"

"I won't send them out to look for trouble yet," Max answered, "I want to get a better feel for how they work with each other first."

"Is Jesse going to be in on this?" Wally asked, hoping for some small reprieve.

Max shook his head. "She has enough to deal with right now. I'm not going to add more to her load." He pushed away from the table and stood. "If everything's fine here, I'm going to check on Jay."

Wally nodded. "Yeah, losing his speed didn't do him any favors. He aged a lot without it. I'm hoping it revitalized him now that it's returned."

"I hope so, too." Max took his leave and sped away for Keystone City.


	3. Monitor

Disclaimer: DC owns the DCU. Impulse created by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.

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**Reset!: Gemini Ascendant – Chapter Three: Monitor**

Inside his hangared spaceship, Bart was buzzing with excitement. "It's almost time!" he reminded Thad once again as he connected the videogame system to the monitor. His Young Justice friends were coming over to hang out, like they used to do before the speedsters temporarily lost their powers all those months ago. "Kon's gonna bring Tim. Cassie's gonna bring Cissie. Oh! I gotta go pick up Anita! Be right back!" Bart zipped out of the spaceship, leaving Thad to facepalm in his wake.

The blond speedster slid into the monitor station seat and played with the controls, exploring the system. A wealth of information opened before him. Newsfeeds, surveillance systems, dispatches from the JLA, JSA, and the Titans all fed into the station. The simple joy of spying on those unawares and learning all those little details from a distance brought a grin to his face and a glint to his yellow eyes. Why, with a extra little work, he could probably get into their networks! The thought of all those little treasures of information was simply too tempting and he started planning his subterfuge. Who would be the best target to hit first? Not the JLA. That was too high profile and he knew that there would be a great deal of risk involved. JSA? Then again, considering the average age of the members, they probably kept most of their good stuff in paper format. The Titans, however, were a different matter. Now he just needed his helper software. Thad thought of the Craydl technoplasm that he often relied on in the past, but that was not in his arsenal now. That meant writing code himself. That meant _learning_ the appropriate coding languages himself. This was going to turn into an endeavor after all.

Bart's voice startled him. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Checking the monitor feeds," Thad answered as dryly as he could. He hoped that Bart didn't notice him nearly jump out of the chair.

"Anything good?"

"No." Turning around, Thad nodded his head to Anita, who was settling down in front of the gaming console.

"I thought we were going to just hang out here and have some fun," she remarked. "Between my classes and caring for my parents, I haven't had much time for good, clean, _normal_ fun."

Bart tossed himself onto the cushions, getting a little bounce out of it. "Beating up bad guys _is_ normal fun."

"For you, maybe," Anita countered, "You've spent how much of your life actively fighting? Half? More than half? I remember us joking around that you couldn't be normal if you tried."

"Hey! I can too!" Bart glared at Thad, who was snickering at his expense. "Like you're any better!"

"I am," Thad replied with a grin, "I can fake being normal just as easily as I can fake being you. How else do you think I get through the day?"

Bart ticked off the items on his fingers, "Picking on me, chatting with your internet girlfriend, playing with Dox..."

Anita's eyebrows shot up. "Internet girlfriend? I can't decide if that's cute or pathetic. Do you know if she's really a girl?"

Crossing his arms, Thad scowled and heaved a harsh sigh. He was distracted from his retort by the hatch opening. Cassie and Cissie joined the gathering in the spaceship. "Kon's right behind us," Cassie informed them, "He's bringing Greta along too."

Kon's ebullient voice carried through the open hatch. "Thank you for flying SuperAir! Please exit in an orderly fashion!" Soon Tim and Greta filed into the spaceship, followed by Kon, who shut the hatch behind him. Backpacks gathered in a pile by the door. While the girls exchanged their greetings and introduced Greta to Thad, Kon sidled up to Bart and whispered, "Most awkward. Flight. Ever."

Bart shrugged. The uneasy history between Robin and Secret didn't matter much to him. Instead, he jumped into the crowd to give the girls hugs. "I haven't seen you all in forever!"

The girls, except for Anita, stared and giggled at him. Bart frowned and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What? What are you all laughing at?" He looked down at his shirt, wondering if he had spilled something on it or put it on inside out or backwards. "I know I didn't say something stupid."

Cassie managed to reply first. "That's so cute!"

"You're going native, Bart," Cissie playfully added.

That just confused Bart even further. "What?"

"Your accent," Greta answered, "You didn't used to have it nearly that bad."

"Accent? I don't have an accent!" he protested.

Cassie giggled, "Don't worry, it's not _that_ thick. We're just teasing you."

Cissie tousled his thick mop of hair. "At least everyone already knows that Impulse is based in Alabama. Just like everyone knows that Robin lives in Gotham, so they're not surprised to hear him talk like a typical Gothamite."

"Typical?" Tim questioned, "You need to spend more time in Gotham."

"No offense, but with the amount of concentrated crazy there, I'll have to say no thanks," she retorted, "Knowing my luck, I'd probably get roped into fighting the Joker or something."

Bart piped up, "He's not that bad. I help Batman take him down once. It was kinda cool."

Sliding into the monitor station chair, Tim started running searches. "Yes, Bart, we know. You've told that story at least a dozen times already."

Kon settled down on the middle of the couch with the girls, grinning all the while. Tim noticed and shook his head. It didn't take a psychic to read Kon's thoughts. Even Bart seemed to get the picture and decided it was his imperative to crash it. Before anyone could react, the mop haired speedster threw himself at the couch and landed across all of the laps. Smiling up at Greta, he stretched out and made himself comfortable, ignoring all of the protests. Tim smirked and leaned against the back of his chair. "Joining the harem, Bart?"

Bart craned his neck up to look at him. "What?"

Thad braced against wall and raised a golden eyebrow. "It doesn't look so much like he's joining it, as it seems more like he's _owning_ it."

Kon's sudden frown and telekinetic ejection of Bart was just the payoff Thad was looking for. An unmistakable warning beep from the monitor station caught everyone's attention. Tim read the alert. "There are reports of zombies roaming New Orleans." He looked to Cassie. "Is this a job for Young Justice?"

"We're relatively close," she answered, "And Anita's looking a little anxious. We'll get yelled at, but we can at least do a little first response until the big guns show up."

Greta spoke up, "Not me, I don't have any powers anymore."

Cissie chimed in, "And I'm retired and didn't bring my gear with me."

Thad crossed his arms, "I'm not part of your little club."

Tim had already got up from his seat and picked up his backpack. "If you give me a minute, I'll be ready."

Bart's fingers closed in on his ring, but stopped. "Oh, yeah. Um, guys? I have a problem. My costume's broke and I can't wear it anymore."

Kon shot to his feet. "What? How?"

"I kinda outgrew it and it ripped really, really bad when I put it on," admitted Bart, "Usually, I fix it when it rips, but, um, it kinda rides up really bad now, too. So, I got no costume. Not one I can run in."

Cassie sighed and planted her hands on her hips. "Well, I guess it's just the four of us then. I'll carry Empress. Superboy, carry Robin."

Bart tensed and stepped forward. "What about me?"

"Bart, stay here and watch the monitors," Cassie ordered, "You have an identity to protect. Besides, Kon, Tim, and Anita should be plenty on this team." Seeing Bart's excitement deflate into disappointment, her tone softened with sympathy. "I know you really want to go back to "active duty", but I would feel better if you had some better cover." Why did she feel like she just kicked a puppy? "Bart, really, don't get so down about it. Why don't you work with Greta on making some new gear while we're out, too? She's been making up so many new costume designs for me and Cissie, I'm sure she'd love to try sketching one for you." Not that any of those designs ever came to fruition, but she needed a distraction for Bart.

Greta's eyes lit up with inspiration and she hopped off of the couch. "Oh, really? Bart? Would you let me?"

Still not enthused about the situation, Bart nodded. "Sure."

Soon, the population in the spaceship reduced by half. Thad watched Bart play with the monitor station controls and felt his the corner of his eye twitch. Did Bart have any clue as to what he was doing?

Cissie pulled her knees up to her chest on the couch. "So, your costume is in that bad of shape?"

Bart opened his ring and tossed the red and white costume to her. "See for yourself."

Greta joined Cissie in inspecting the suit. "You weren't kidding about the rip. Oh! I can see a couple spots where you fixed it before. Well, more like I can feel it. Right here, Cissie. The fabric gets thicker, like a scar." She wrinkled her nose. "It kinda smells, too."

Bart shrugged, "It has a lot of miles on it."

Greta went to her backpack and pulled out a sketchbook. "Well, I think an update is a wonderful idea. You need a new suit anyways, so why not?"

Bart shrugged again, "Go for it, but I don't know if I can get Wally to get STAR Labs to make another one for me."

Greta started sketching out rough costume ideas with Cissie leaning over and giving suggestions. Thad's curiosity got the better of him and he stepped towards the couch to see what they were up to. He chortled at some of the initial designs. "If you can get him into _that_, I'd pay to see it."

"No matter how you design it," Cissie advised, "You have to make sure that no one can see what color his eyes really are. Big feet and insane hair, he can sort of get away with showing, but his eyes are a dead giveaway."

"They're not that weird!" Bart protested from the monitor station, "Most people don't even notice!"

Thad resisted the urge to check his reflection. He hadn't thought much of it before, but Cissie had a point. Yellow wasn't an option for his learner license. Instead, the State of Alabama had hazel on record for his eye color. "It's still uncommon enough to be distinguishing. Cissie is right. No unlensed or clear lensed masks for you."

Visibly annoyed at the restriction simply because it was a restriction, Bart opted to keep watching the monitors. "That bites."

Greta scribbled a note into her sketchbook. "Keep goggles. Check." Another thought grabbed her, "Don't you ever get splattered with bugs when you run? Cars get covered all the time and they're not nearly as fast."

"Speed Force," Bart answered with a quick wave of his hand.

Thad opted to fill in, "The same field that keeps friction from tearing us apart protects us from the light debris like dust and small insects." He then added, "Not that _anyone_ fully understands it."

"It's almost like Kon's telekinetic field, in that case," Cissie remarked, "But not quite. Cassie's a little envious of it, because he can fly faster and still not get totally disgusting and windburned. If you ever need some serious heavy-duty moisturizers, Cassie has them."

Bart wasn't too interested in that. Suddenly, the monitor station beeped frantically as new dispatch signals started flying and Bart focused on the area getting all of the attention. "Whoa! Is that Solomon Grundy? Um, maybe I should go there anyways?" He glanced back at his torn costume. Checking the monitors feeds again, he exhaled in relief. "Nope, false alarm. Just a really big zombie dude. I don't get these guys. They don't act like zombies are supposed to. They're tearin' stuff up, yeah, but they're not biting people or eating brains."

Thad leaned over Greta's sketchbook with his hands folded behind his back. "Then maybe they're not zombies, moron." He frowned down at the rough doodles as she relaxed and started sketching again. "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to run and fight in that? Any suit would have to accommodate those two requirements first. And that one? With the flappy bits? That would be obnoxious at anything over a brisk walk."

Greta frowned, but her pencil did not stop moving. "I'm just bouncing ideas around."

"And some of those ideas shouldn't be entertained in the first place."

"Can you add a fly to the suit?" Bart asked, heading off an possible argument and cutting off a terse reply from Cissie. "Potty breaks are kinda annoying in the old one." When Greta giggled and nodded, Bart smiled and punched his fists into the air. "Awesome!"

Thad decided that he had enough of watching Greta play at fashion designer and hovered over Bart's shoulder to supervise the monitors. "Use the traffic cameras, idiot. You can follow the psuedo-zombies and extrapolate their path. Then you can tell your team where to land and head them off."

"I _am_ using the traffic cameras!" Bart snapped back.

"You're not doing a very good job of it."

"Yeah? I don't see _you_ doing this job!" challenged Bart.

Thad sneered down at him and countered, "I'm not part of your little team and I wasn't asked to sit there."

"Sprocking _grife_, Thad. Do you have to be a jerk _all_ the time?" Bart groused, "Why don't you go make out with your internet girlfriend and get off my back?"

Greta watched Cissie lock wide eyes with an equally wide-eyed Thad and blush. Her jaw dropped with a gasp, followed by a shrill squeal. "_Him?_" She pointed a finger at the blond speedster. "_He's_ the guy you've been talking to online?"

Bart turned his back to the monitor to stare slackjawed at his brother and Cissie. "_Cissie's_ your internet girlfriend?" He looked to the archer in dismay. "Really?"

"We're not dating!" Cissie quickly corrected. She took a calmer tone of voice to frame what she considered reasonable. "We've just been talking, that's all. Considering our backgrounds, it's been therapeutic." She looked to Thad, "Right?"

He stood tall and crossed his arms, as if daring Bart to object further. "That's right."

Greta poked Cissie with the eraser end of her pencil. "So, if that's all, why'd you hide it? Why are you _both_ hiding it?"

"We're not hiding it!" Cissie protested, "We just didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea! Which you two did anyways!"

Bart was back to watching the monitors and flipping between the camera feeds. He really wanted to have his boots on the ground there and be in the middle of the all of the action. "This is really boring." It wasn't the fun he was expecting to have with his friends. He saw Thad aimlessly pacing around the room, obviously just as bored. "I wanna play a game. You wanna take over, Thad?"

With nothing better to do, the speedsters switched places. Bart settled down with a video game controller in his hands, while Thad mined for information. After a while, Bart finished a level and decided to see if anything new was going on the monitors.

"Hey, who are the guys in suits?" Bart mused over Thad's shoulder.

Scowling at the cluster that formed around him, now that Cissie and Greta were also peering at the monitor, Thad answered, "I don't know. They could be FBI for all I care."

"No, they're not," Greta grimly countered, "They're DEO."

"Department of Extranormal Operations, right?" Cissie asked, "What are they doing here?"

Greta's own bad history with the DEO cropped up and she frowned at the screen. "It can't be anything good. We have to warn Cassie. They don't like Young Justice."

"Understatement of the century," Cissie dryly retorted. She dug her phone out of her pocket and called Wonder Girl.

The voice that answered did not belong to her friend. "Hello, Ralph."

Ripping the battery out, she thrust the phone into Bart's hands. "Take this and dump it!"

Bart immediately obliged, opting to drop the phone somewhere in South Dakota. By the time he came back, Cissie was in full freakout mode. "They have my number! Guys, they have my number! And they have Cassie!"

Thad was scanning the area with the monitor station. "If Wonder Girl is captured, then it's very likely that the others are, too."

Greta stared at the screens, hoping to catch a glimpse of her friends. "What are we going to do? I don't have powers, Cissie doesn't have her gear, and Bart doesn't have his gear, either."

Cissie turned to Bart, but he was already gone. "Oh, no... He didn't."

"He did," Thad grumbled from the monitor station. "I wish I could say that I had no obligation to save him, but I made a promise to Max that I would look after my idiot brother."

Crossing her arms in impatient annoyance, Greta remarked, "You're not moving very fast for a speedster saving his brother."

Thad shrugged and kept his eyes on the monitor. "I'll let him dangle a bit just so he appreciates my timely intervention more. Bart's a little _dense_." The last word came out with an derisive grimace.

Now that the moment of panic had passed, Cissie was thinking. "Greta, take the monitor station. My phone's not an option anymore, so do you have one, Thad?"

As he gave his seat to Greta, he produced a phone from his pocket to display it to Cissie for a few seconds. "I'm guessing you also want me to run you back home, so you can get your gear and go after Bart, who's going after Young Justice. Just charging in isn't going to help you. You'll just get caught, as well."

"I wasn't going to charge in," Cissie corrected, "And I wasn't going to ask you to help me get my gear. A girl on the street with a bow and a full quiver of arrows is going to stand out. I was thinking of something a little more discreet."

Thad raised a golden eyebrow with intrigue. "I do like discreet."


End file.
